REDBRIDGE: Borough roads chosen as key routes for London 2012 (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

REDBRIDGE: Borough roads chosen as key routes for London 2012

10:55am Friday 30th July 2010 in

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ROADS running through the heart of Wanstead and Woodford have been identified as key routes for athletes, spectators and officials attending the 2012 Olympic Games.

The A113 - New Wanstead, Hermon Hill and Chigwell Road - has been classified as a “training route” by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), while the A12 between the Green Man and Redbridge roundabouts will have extensive traffic management measures imposed in an attempt to ensure smooth flow of the thousands of spectators heading to the Olympic park at Stratford.

Residents of New Wanstead and Hermon Hill have expressed their fears for the two months that the Games come to town.

Carol Brown and Peter Jenkins, of New Wanstead, said they are "anti-Olympics".

The couple, both in their 50s, said they are prepared for the worst.

Ms Brown said: "I think the traffic is going to be far worse, it's going to be a nightmare.

"It's good if the buses are suspended along here as they make it much more like a main road than a residential road.

"But you can guarantee it will be hell, the school run is bad enough, it's chocker out here - thank goodness it's only for two months."

Mr Jenkins said: "I don't think we have the infrastructure to host it and maybe we have bitten off more than we can chew.

"Boris (Johnson) will try desperately to get people moving but I don't know if there is a proper plan."

Alex Trower, 18, of New Wanstead, said it would be worse around rush hour when the road is at its busiest but she said "people will live with it".

Eileen Esparon, 62, of New Wanstead, said: "I'm anti Olympics and don't want any of it down here, let the traffic go down Hollybush Hill.

"I think the Olympics will be a waste of money, for example new housing will be too expensive for the average person."

Father Robert Norwood, 72, of Hermon Hill, said: "I'm not an enthusiastic sportperson but given that Lord Coe and everyone else backed the bid, I don't see that we complain about it now it's here.

"The traffic probably will be a worry but a bigger problem is the amount of cars that speed along this road during the evenings."

A spokeswoman for the ODA insisted that training routes would mean minimal disruption, but things like roadworks will be stopped for the duration, and there may be changes to bus stops, temporary suspensions of bus stops, side road closures and changes to traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, to aid traffic flow.

She added: "It is likely there will be an increase in traffic at certain times but we are encouraging people to get there (to events) by public transport.

"We want to minimise disruption during 2012 and the whole of London will be operating very differently. It's important to start talking about it to people now so they can start planning and start thinking about it.

"There will be some benefits as there won't be many roadworks and there will be improvements to road layouts in certain areas after the games."

Training routes are part of the Olympic Route Network (ORN), which covers swathes of key routes in London, and will be used by 18,000 athletes and team officials, 5,000 event officials, 20,000 broadcast media representatives, 8,000 journalists and photographers and 6,000 Olympic committee officials.

The ODA will start consulting on the detailed Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) that are required to support the measures on the ORN later in the year.